Laser-induced and flash graphene

Two fast, solvent-free ways to graphene. A pulsed CO₂ laser converts the surface of a polyimide film into porous graphene that can be written straight into micro-supercapacitor electrodes; a sub-second electrical flash through coal, carbon black or plastic waste turns it into gram-scale turbostratic graphene.

1. Write: A pulsed CO₂ infrared laser photothermally converts the sp³ carbon of commercial polymer films into sp² carbon: porous graphene with three-dimensional networks, made in one step in air (Lin et al. 2014). 2. Structure: An unusual ultra-polycrystalline lattice of pentagons and heptagons, which calculations partly link to its enhanced capacitance (Lin et al. 2014). 3. Devices: Written directly on the polyimide as interdigitated electrodes that are also their own current collectors, LIG makes in-plane micro-supercapacitors (tested in aqueous 1 M H₂SO₄ and in an ionic liquid) with specific capacitances above 4 mF cm⁻² and power densities of about 9 mW cm⁻²; one-step processing in air suits roll-to-roll manufacturing (Lin et al. 2014). 4. Flash: Flash Joule heating turns inexpensive carbon into gram-scale graphene in less than a second, with no furnace, solvents or reactive gases (Luong et al. 2020). 5. Yield: From high-carbon sources such as carbon black, anthracitic coal or calcined coke, 80–90 % yield at over 99 % carbon purity, with no purification (Luong et al. 2020). 6. Product: Turbostratic flash graphene with a weak or absent Raman D band; its disordered stacking lets it exfoliate quickly when mixed into composites; the electricity costs about 7.2 kJ per gram (Luong et al. 2020).

Starting materials: Polyimide (Kapton) film for LIG; coal, petroleum coke, biochar, carbon black, food waste, rubber tyres or mixed plastic waste for flash graphene. Product: Patterned porous graphene on the film (LIG); bulk turbostratic graphene (flash graphene).

Lin et al., “Laser-induced porous graphene films from commercial polymers”, Nat. Commun. 2014 (doi:10.1038/ncomms6714); Luong et al., “Gram-scale bottom-up flash graphene synthesis”, Nature 2020 (doi:10.1038/s41586-020-1938-0); Ye, James & Tour, “Laser-induced graphene: from discovery to translation”, Adv. Mater. 2019 (doi:10.1002/adma.201803621).

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